Casting jig



Dec. 20, 1960 l. D. oLsoN ET AL 2,954,820

, CASTING JIG Filed July l0, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Mgg Dec. 20, 1960 l.D. OLSON ETAL 2,964,820

CASTING JIG 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July l0, 1957 by? v Dec. 20, 1960 l,D. OLSON ETAL 2,964,820

CASTING JIG 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed July 10, 1957 lCASTIN G .HG

Irwin D. Olson, Lombard, Robert B. Taylor. Elmhurst, `Clarence B. Monk,Jr., Batavia, and John P. Wogulis, St. Charles, Ill., assgnors toStructural Clay Products Research Foundation Filed July 10, 1957, Ser.No. 671,107

6 Claims. (Cl. 25-121) This invention relates to a casting jig, and moreparticularly, to a jig for casting slabs into integral units havingcores therein.

Of the many various materials adapted for use in building walls, one ofthe most desirable is glazed, structural clay tile. Glazed facing tileunits are especially in demand for laboratory walls and partitions,foodhandlingl rooms and other areas where cleanliness and durability areto be combined with pleasing appearance.

The most desirable facing tile unit would be one which .could be usedwithout other structural elements to form either an outside wall or aninside partition, and as ordinarily both exposed faces are desired tohave glazed surfaces, a double-faced unit is required.

Double-faced units can be produced by glazing both sides of a singleunit, but this ordinarily limits the units to a single surface textureon both sides, and more important, the irregular shrinkage resultingfrom the glazing process tends to alter the dimensions of the units sothat both sides cannot be held to an exact tolerance. The best wallconstruction made from these units is a smooth, accurate surface on oneside and an uneven, jagged surface on the other side. This, of course,is very undesir- .able for most building purposes where both surfacesshould be smooth.

At the present, the .only acceptable method of building tile wallshaving glazed surfaces on both sides is to use separate units on eachside of the wall which costs approximately twice as much as a singlewidth wall because of increased labor costs. Also, using two units thethickness of the wall is increased reducing the size of the rooms, andwhen thin units are used `to keep the thickness down to a minimum, theyare extremely difiicult to lay, great care being necessary to hold themin position while mortaring.

The ideal but heretofore unobtainable individual glazed tile unit wouldbe one having two glazed surfaces having tolerances within a standardrange capable of use to form a wall of single unit thickness withoutadditional structural elements and capable of being produced indifferent colorings and textures on the opposing surfaces. Further, theunits should have cores which mate with the cores of adjacent units toprovide the wall with coring for wiring, conduits, reinforcing rods orthe like, and if possible, there should be coring running bothvertically and horizontally.

The present invention provides a jig into which singlefaced slabs areplaced opposite one another and alined by the jig. Spacing members areinsertable between the slabs to hold them in position and to form withother elements of the jig the walls of a cavity into which a bondingmaterial such as fast-setting grout may be poured to bond the slabs intoan integral unit having vertical cores determined by the space occupiedby the spacing members and horizontal cores determined by the level ofthe bonding material.

With this jig, slabs of any texture or coloring can be .tates Patent Ocombined, and the slabs can be pre-selected so as to be within anydesirable dimensional tolerance.

The general object of the present invention is to provide a new andimproved casting jig.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improvedjig for casting slabs into an integral unit having cores therein.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a jig of thetype described having spacing members which are insertable between theslabs to urge them against alining members.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a jig of thetype described in the preceding paragraph wherein the spacing membersare inflatable to hold the slabs in position and deatable to permitunobstructed removal from the jig.

Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a jig asdescribed, having alining members movable into engagement with the slabsto hold them during the casting, and movable out of engagement with theslabs to permit removal of the cast unit.

Still another o-bject of the present invention is to provide a jig asdescribed herein with inflatable spacing members, each having a rodextending therein, through which air passes to inflate or deflate thespacing member, the rods having enlarged ends within the spacing membersto insure deflation of the spacing members about the enlarged end toprevent the deflated spacing member to contact portions of the adjacentunit.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a jig asdescribed which forms a cavity between the slabs for receipt of bondingmaterial which binds the slabs into an integral unit.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a jig whereinthe spacing members provide vertical cores in the cast unit and thevertical cores are determined by the amount of the bonding materialused.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a jig asdescribed wherein unit is cast on a pallet to facilitate removal andhandling of the unit after casting.

Other and further objects and advantages of the present invention arereadily apparent from the following description and drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation View of one embodiment of the casting jig ofthe present invention;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line 2 2 of Fig. l,the inatable bags being shown schematically by dot-dash lines;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of the device of Fig. l;

Fig. 4 is a partial side elevational view similar to Fig. 3, but withthe elements in a different position;

Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken along line 5-5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a side elevational view partially in section of an inflatablespacing member of Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line 7-7 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of an integral unit Ycast in the jig ofFig. 1;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged partial side elevational view of the lockingmechanism shown in Fig. 3; and

Fig. 10 is a bottom View of the center spacing members of the device ofFig. l.

While this device is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms,there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detailone specific embodiment, with the understanding that the presentdisclosure is to be considered as an exemplication of the principles .ofthe invention and is not intended to llimit the invention to theembodiment illustrated. The scope of the invention .will be pointed outin the appended claims.

Referring now to the drawings, the casting jig, shown generally as 20,consists of a support 21 having a wooden base 22 for the support of apallet 23 upon which slabs 24 are placed to be cast into integral units.The support has upstanding sides 25 to which movable, aligning or sidemembers 26 are attached for engagement with the slabs 24. Above thesupport 21, spacing members 27 are movably mounted for insertion betweenthe slabs. The spacing members 27 are attached to a rack 28 which ismovably supported and guided by upstanding rods 29. Air conduits 30 leadfrom controls 31 which control the inflation and dellation of thespacing members 27 by alternately introducing air under pressure toinflate the spacing members and evacuating the air to deate the spacingmembers.

Turning now to the sides 25 of the support 21, it is seen from theligures in more detail that these sides consist of channels 32 havingvertical slots 33 to permit movement of the aligning member 26illustrated in the drawings as lugs which are attached to hinged pfates35. These plates are attached to the top of the side channels 32 bymeans of hinges 36, and thus are movable outwardly away from the sidechannels. Coil springs 37 are attached to the plates 35 and engage theside channels to urge the plates outwardly therefrom.

A locking mechanism 38 is provided to lock the plates 35 into engagementwith the side channels 32. This mechanism consists of a plate engaginglink 39 having one end 40 pivotally attached to a flange 41 on the side25, and the other end 39 contacting the plate 35. Adjacent the end 40, alocking link 42 is pivotally attached and extends outwardly for pivotalattachment to the locking handle 43. The locking handle has one end 44pivotally attached to the tlange 41. The links are so arranged that whenin a locked position, as shown in Fig. 3, the locking link 42 wou'dnormally urge the operating handle downwardly as the spring urges theplate 35 away from the side channel 32. Thus the operating handle isprevented from moving upwardly, and the plate 35 is locked in the slabengaging position.

To unlock the locking mechanism, the locking handle 43 is moved upwardlyuntil the locking link 42 is forced out of the locking positionpermitting the spring to urge the plate 35 away from side channel 32 asshown in Fig. 4. An enlarged view of the locking mechanism is shown inFig. 9.

The aligning lugs 26 which extend from the hinged plates 35 through theslots 33 in the side channels are positioned so as to contact theslabs'24 and hold them in place for the casting of a unit having exactdimensional tolerances. This is accomplished by having center lugs 45 incontact with the faces of the slabs to control the thickness of the castunit, and end lugs 46 in contact with the ends 47 of the slabs toprovide a cast unit with ends perpendicular to the faces.

In the jig shown in the drawings, two units are cast simultaneously, andin the embodiment shown, end lugs 46 are provided only at the outer endsof the jig, the inner ends of the slabs being aligned by two of theintlatable spacing members 27 as will be described below.

The spacing members 27 are vertically movable into and out of engagementwith the slabs 24 and are bolted to the rack 28 to provide rigidity. Therack consists of three horizontal bars 48 to which angle plates 49 arebolted, and it is from these angle plates that the spacing membersdepend. The rack 28 is movably suspended from the rods 29 by wires 50extending down from pulleys 51, and is guided in its vertical movementby engagement of three rollers 52 attached to each end of the rack. Therollers are arranged with at least one of each set of rollers onopposite a side of the rod 29. The rack construction and the means ofmoving the rack may be of any similar construction and still be withinthe purview of the present invention. For instance the wires 50 may besecured to counter-weights to facilitate movement of the rack. Analternative would be to use a power winch of some sort.

As shown in the drawings, the spacing members actually are plastic bags53 having rectangular vertical and horizontal cross sections and areinatable. The top of each plastic bag is hermetically sealed by boltingthe top between clamping plates 54 having a resilient gasket 55therebetween to insure a proper seal. Extending through the plates andgasket is a hollow rod 57 having an open end 58 inside the bag and anintermediate opening 59 also inside the bag. This rod serves as aconduit through which air under pressure may pass to inate the bag andthrough which air may be evacuated from the bag to deflate the bag andcreate a vacuum therein so that the bag will collapse about the rod 57.The open end 58 is enlarged as at 60 and is spaced above the bottom ofthe bag so as to prevent the bag from collapsing against the open end 58before the bag has been thoroughly evacuated. Further, the rod andespecially the enlarged end guide the collapse of the bag so that itwill not collapse against the adjacent portions of the cast unit andwill prevent obstruction of withdrawal of the bag, or possible damage tothe cast unit when the bags are removed before the mortar has thoroughlyhardened.

In the embodiment shown in the drawings, ten bags are utilized and arearranged with a single bag 62, two bags 63 and 64 spaced from the firstbag, a combination of four bags 65, 66, 67 and 68 spaced from the twobags, two bags 69 and 70 spaced from the four bags, and finally the lastsingle bag spaced from the preceding two bags. When the bags areinserted into the jig, the spacing of the bags provides cavities intowhich mortar may be poured with the bags adjacent the spaces formingsealed cavity walls when inflated. Two of the central bags 66 and 67 ofthe four-bag combination are arranged so as to be spaced betweenadjacent slabs to properly space the units and thus extend outwardlybetween adjacent slabs. To properly position the bags in the combinationof the four bags for precise displacement when inflated, a wooden block72 is mounted in the center so that each bag has a side abutting theblock thereby positioning each bag independently.

Air conduits 73 are attached to the rods 57 extending from the twocentral bags 66 and 67 and join to form a single conduit leading to thecontrols 31 for separate ination of the central bags. Air conduits 75extend from the rods 57 of the other bags 62, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 70 and71 and are each joined to a pipe 76 from which a main conduit 77 extendsto the controls 31.

The controls 31 consist of three valves. The first valve 78 controls theintroduction of air under pressure through the first air conduit 73 andinto the central bags 66 and 67. The second valve 79 controls theintroduction of air under pressure into the other bags, and the thirdvalve 80 controls the evacuation of all the bags. With this arrangement,the central bags can be inflated independently of the others bags, andall the bags can be evacuated simultaneously.

In operation, the jig is initially open with the bags or spacing members62 through 71 withdrawn upwardly as shown in Fig. 3 and deflated andwith the hinged plates 35 retracted horizontally away from the sidechannels 32 as shown in Fig. 4. The pallet 23 is then slid onto theWooden base 22 and slabs 24 are placed on the pallet adjacent and infront of the aligning lugs 26 as shown in phantom in Fig. 4. The lockinghandle 43 is then forced downwardly to lock the hinged plates 35 againstthe side channels 32 so that the lugs 26 extend into engagement with theslabs 24 as shown in Fig. 3, the positions of the slabs being indicatedby broken lines. The rack 28 is then lowered so that the spacing members27 are inserted between the slabs 24 in the position indicated by dottedlines in Fig. 3. After the spacing members are fully inserted, the firstvalve 78 is adjusted so as to inate the central bags 66 and 67 therebyspacing the adjacent slabs and urging them against the end lugs 46 forprecise alignment. The second valve 79 is then adjusted to inliate theother bags which urge the slabs 24 against the center lugs 45. Also whenthe bags are inflated, they form a seal between the slabs and sealinglyabut the pallet 23 to form a cavity for the receipt of bonding materialsuch as quicksetting grout which is poured into the cavities. The lugs26 and 45 do not come into cont-act with the grout, but rather, arelocated in the free space on the outside of the finished block.Therefore, there is no problem of moving the lugs away from the block.Upon setting of the grout, the bags are evacuated and withdrawn, theplates 35 swing out and the finished unit 81 is removed on the pallet23.

Fig. 8 illustrates a typical unit 81 cast in the jig of the presentinvention. The unit has two glazed faces 82 provided by the two slabs 24which are bonded together by the bonding material 83. Vertical coring 84has been provided by the spacing members 27 occupying a portion of thespace between slabs and horizontal coring 85 can be 'accomplished asdesired by controlling the amount of bonding material used to provide aspace between the level of the bonding material and the top of theslabs.

In order to make this jig commercially vsuccessful it is necessary thata very fast setting grout be used such as that of the co-pendingapplication No. 458,512 led September 27, 1954, now abandoned. With thatparticular grout using a combination of Portland cement and Luminitewith little or no sand, an initial setting time of ve to six minutes ispossible, after which the unit can be removed on the pallet 23 andstored for further setting. Thus it is obvious that with a bank of amultitude of jigs designed to cast a multitude of units, mass productionat low cost can be easily accomplished.

Therefore, the present invention provides a jig that can be utilized tocast slabs into integral units with channels running both vertically andhorizontally, which is especially adaptable for casting slabs of glazedtile into double-faced units. The opposite glazed surfaces of the unitsmay be of different textures and colors and the dimensions of the unitcan be held within standard tolerances so that the units can be usedwithout other structural elements to form a two-faced wall with smoothsurfaces on either side.

We claim as our invention:

1. A jig for casting spaced slabs into integral units having corestherein, the jig comprising: a support having a horizontally disposedslab supporting base and side members having lugs spaced aparthorizontally above said base to engage exterior surfaces of said slabsto align opposing slabs in upright laterally spaced positions, resilientspacing members insertable between said positions and opposing slabs andengaging opposed interior faces of the slabs to space the slabs and urgethem outwardly against said side members, said slabs, spacing membersand base forming a cavity therebetween for receipt of bonding material,and means for inserting said spacing members between the slabs, and forretracting the spacing members after the bonding material has bonded theslabs into an integral unit.

2. A jig for casting spaced slabs into integral units having corestherein, the jig comprising: a support having a slab supporting base andupstanding sides, side plates hingedly secured to said upstanding sidesand having slab aligning lugs extending inwardly therefrom, means forswinging said plates into a slab engaging position wherein the lugsalign the opposing slabs, resilient spacing members insertable betweenopposing slabs to space the slabs and urge them against the lugs, saidslabs, spacing members and base forming a cavity therebetween forreceipt of bonding material, and means for inserting said spacingmembers between the slabs and for retracting the spacing members afterthe bonding material has bonded the slabs into an integral unit.

3. A jig for casting spaced slabs into integral units having corestherein, the jig comprising: a support having a slab supporting base andupstanding sldes, side plates hingedly secured to said upstanding sidesand having slab aligning lugs extending inwardly therefrom, spring meansnormally urging said plates and lugs out of engagement with said slabs,means for swinging the plates and lugs into a slab engaging position andlocking the plates in said engaging position wherein the lugs align theopposing slabs, inliatable spacing members insertable between opposingslabs, means for inserting and retracting said spacing members, andmeans for inflating the spacing members while inserted between the slabsand deating prior to retraction, the inflated spacing members extendingbetween opposing slabs to urge the slabs against the lugs, said inflatedspacing members, side members and base forming a cavity therebetween forreceipt of bonding material which bonds the slabs into an integral unit.

4. A jig for casting spaced slabs into integral units having corestherein, the jig comprising: a support having a slab supporting base andupstanding sides, side plates hingedly secured to said upstanding sidesand having slab-aligning lugs extending inwardly therefrom, means forswinging said plates into a slab engaging position wherein the lugsalign the opposing slabs, inflatable spacing members insertable betweenopposing slabs, means for inating said spacing members while insertedbetween the slabs including the introductions of air under pressure,said means including hollow rods extending into said spacing members,each said rod having an air hole within its associated spacing memberand having an enlarged end within the spacing member shaped to serve asa guide against which the spacing member is dellated so as to beincontiguous with adjacent objects, the spacing members when inatedextending between opposing slabs to urge the slabs against said aligninglugs, said inated spacing members, side members and supporting baseforming a cavity therebetween for receipt of bonding material whichbonds the slabs into an integral unit.

5. The jig of claim 4 wherein a unit transporting pallet is slidableonto said slab supporting base for casting of said unit thereon and uponwhich the cast unit is removed from the jig.

6. In a jig for casting spaced slabs into integral units having corestherein, the combination of a support having a slab-supporting base andlaterally spaced upstanding sides having opposed sets of slab-aligninglugs extending inwardly therefrom, means mounting at least one of saidsets of lugs for movement toward the other set and into a slab-engagingposition wherein both sets engage and align opposing slabs, resilientspacing members insertable between opposing slabs to space the slabs andurge them against the lugs, said slabs, spacing members and base forminga cavity therebetween for receipt of bonding material, and means forinserting said spacing members between the slabs and for retracting thespacing members after the bonding material has bonded the slabs into anintegral unit.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 20,718Maddock et al Feb. 17, 1903 813,439 Landon Feb. 27, 1906 875,983 ClaytonIan. 7, 1908 1,142,341 McNeil Iune 8, 1915 1,149,637 Daley Aug. 10, 19151,634,047 Smith June 28, 1927 2,203,694 Morin et al. June 11, 19402,668,999 Baechler Feb. 16, 1954 2,671,941 Fabian Mar. 16, 19542,741,821 Findley Apr. 17, 1956 2,764,798 Huff Oct. 2, 1956 2,781,554Robinson -.--...-.u Feb. 19, 1957

